Aladdin and Todd Repost
by LanceIsHot
Summary: Really short oneshot, and I changed a lot of it. Just a little Todd musings, you can't be an X-men writer wout a bit of Todd agnst! R


_Okay, everyone's allowed at least one repost, and I wanted to change this story. Hope you enjoy it! Oh, and it's based before mutants are exposed. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men or Aladdin._

Aladdin and Todd

Stealing is bad. You should not take what does not belong to you. Thou shall not steal. No matter how you put it, what I do is wrong. Kids are always told that. But if I don't steal, we'll die. We meaning me and the Brotherhood. People don't realize that sometimes you can't get a job, especially when you're 15, and living with three other teenagers.

Lance has a job, but not a well paying one, just one that can cover some of the bills. Gas, electric, water, these things cost money. I've heard kids at school talking; they don't care about bills, that's what parents are for. Adults worry about bills, and kids worry about allowances. That's the way it's supposed to work. Kids aren't supposed to steal food for survival.

But that's how life is at the Brotherhood. Pietro and I steal, Lance works, and Fred does what he can. He's not a very good stealer, and he isn't that great of a worker, so he does his share by trying to keep the house up, or making dinner. At the Brotherhood house, you have no choice but to pull your own weight. We know that Fred's doing the best he can; we accept that, we'd never kick him out or make him leave. That's not what families are supposed to do, and, well, we've all had pretty horrible families.

The Brotherhood's really my only family, or at least, the only family that matters to me. They aren't great, or the nicest guys around, but they have a good excuse for it. It's pretty hard to stay in a good mood all the time when you don't know if a social workers going to come and take you away, or if there's going to be food in the cupboard tomorrow.

There isn't a lot of food to go around. Most of the time, the most we get is what Pietro and I steal from people. And on particularly hard months we dig through dumpsters, and take as much food as possible from the free school lunches. I hate stealing. It's a little known fact about me, most people at school think I do it for kicks, but I don't. It's just my way of surviving.

Every time I steal something, I think of the Disney movie, Aladdin. Pretty lame, huh? A tough Brotherhood thug that watches cartoons? The kids at school would have a field day with that one. I watched the show a lot as a kid, but I didn't really understand it until I grew older.

"_Got to eat to live, got to steal to eat."_

Even though it's supposed to be a funny song, I mean, the monkey pulls out a sword and the guards freak out, I don't think it's very funny. For me, it's a basic code for life. I always had a connection with the movie, down to the having no parents, money, or an honest way of living.

I'd never tell the other guys how I feel about the movie; they'd just laugh at me. And can you blame them? But when everyone else is out, I pull it out from my closet, where it's well hidden underneath a pile of dirty clothes, and put it in. I always laugh when I watch it; I stole it when I left my last foster home. I stole the one thing that made me feel better about stealing. It's ironic in a demented way.

They've always hated me. They, meaning everybody. My parents, all my foster parents, the kids at school, the X-men, even the Brotherhood can sometimes treat me like dirt. Most people look down on me, for what I've done, and what I'd have to do until I could get a real job. But even then, who would hire someone who probably stole from them at one point in time?

I hate the names Duncan calls me. Freak, loser, toad. Even though Toad is my codename, it's not something I like to be called on a regular basis. I didn't even get to choose it! Besides which, I don't call anyone else names, well, except the X-men.

The X-men, out of all the people I've known, they're the people I hate the most. They have everything they need in the world. They have food, clothes that don't have rips in them, money to buy things that they want. What I would give to be able to buy something I wanted, not something that was an absolute necessity. The X-men have everything they need, and they hate me because I'm not as good as them.

I hate how people look down on me because I'm different, or because I look odd, or do things they don't like. Who gave them the right to judge me? Especially since none of it is my fault. I was born that way. You hear about how we shouldn't discriminate against different races, or colors, or sexes, and how people need to tolerate our differences. Yeah, there's equal rights for everyone, except for the ugly little mutant with the six-foot tongue. And that's before they know I'm a mutant, what happens when they realize I _am _the freak they think I am. Things will get even worse for me.

Even now, normal people don't understand me. They see what they want to see: a poor, dirty thief. It's another thing I have in common with ol' Al. Nobody sees the real us, the one that people will actually like.

"_Riffraff, street rat, I don't buy that. If only they'd look closer would they see a poor boy? No sire, they'd find out, there's so much more to me."_

It's the sad part in the movie, but it was made for me. I only want people to see the real me. Is that so much to ask? I want people to look past the tough talking, crack-making thug that I show to the world. I want people to see the one that hates stealing and being called names. The one that loves hanging with friends, and only real wish is to be accepted by people.

The one that… has a connection with the movie Aladdin. The one who wants to find a magic genie, and me and my friends into millionaires. It's a stupid dream, you don't have to tell me…but still. Every time I see a shooting star, I wish on it, and I always throw some loose change into the fountain at the mall. And, well, I'm always looking for a magic lamp, like the one from the movie. I haven't seen one, but it'd be nice if I could have a genie change all this for me.

That my life and my family's lives would change.

That all our lives would get better.

That I can stop stealing.

That people will know the real me, the person who matters, instead of the one who nobody cares about.

I know it's stupid, and that I'm too old to be thinking this kind of stuff, but I can't help it. Hope's the only thing you've got when everything's taken away from you, heck, I didn't even have that much to start with. I don't think it's that bad of a thing to hope for a new life. But until then, I've got to keep stealing, and lying, and doing things no kid should ever have to do, because I've got no choice. My family means too much for me to lose.

And I've always got that last shred of hope that things will change for the better someday.

_Okay, I know its kind of babbling, but its Toad's thoughts, so it's supposed to be. Please review and tell me what you think! Oh, and I don't know if I screwed up his past, but there's so many different versions, I just…made it up. I hope you liked it!_


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